How much weight have you put on since moving to America?

[xxxwabbiexxx 70]

Lol. I'm more like 10-20lbs but it's not because the food is good. It's because the food is fatty and kinda gross. It was hard to find good food so a lot of the food I *had* to eat, that I COULD eat was not good for me. Bread is awful. Cheese is awful. Beef mince is flavourless and fatty... While we were closing on our house we were staying with friends/family so we didn't eat very well (quick meals to get our from under their feet). Since we have our own house now I've still gotta shift that extra weight but my health is totally fine (sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure etc) which is all that REALLY matters... right? lol

You should ship some apply pie here for me to try though ... I miss good apple pie. A lot of the ones I find here have too much cinnamon so I'll have to start making my own... and eat it with some custard

LOL so true!! I have never had moldy bread here it last for ages, its awful!!!! Mince beef wow I drain away so much fat from it!!!!!! Milk to me tastes funny aswel, again last for ever, makes you wonder what they add to it.

I know what you mean about *having* to eat food sometimes like when you go out with friends.

Don't get me wrong some places are really nice but on the whole I'm inclined to dislike them.

I think you'll find nothing beats an IRISH fried breakfast with a cup of tea!

lol cook off!!!!!!!!!!!

[scotinmass 588]

I think you'll find nothing beats an IRISH fried breakfast with a cup of tea!

No you can't beat a Scottish breakfast! Fried tattie scones! Mmmmmmmm. You can keep your tea tho! Yuck!

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Where are you eating that is fatty and gross? We do not go to fast food places and we try to avoid chain restaurants with a couple exceptions. He likes the 99 and we both like the Cheesecake factory but we really only go there for special occassion or to take visitors from the UK. We are fortunate (or unfortunate depending on how you view it since we are dieting)to live in an area where there are literally hundreds of decent dining options within a short drive or train ride from home. for example the North end section of Boston alone has dozens of amazing Italian restaurants, bakeries and gelato shops within a short walk from the train. When we go to Maine our options are much more limited We do eat at home most nights and we take take turns cooking. David makes a really good Shepherd's pie, roast beef and mashed potatoes. Pretty much everything else he "cooked" in Scotland consisted of a sauce poured over sauted chicken, mince or Quorn and served with rice. I try to make a lot of different dishes and we try new places on weekends and vacations. We visited my daughter and we tried a Cuban restaurant in Florida. I went home and tried to make the yummy chicken riojana dish we had there and came up with a reasonable facimile.(btw if anyone actually has the recipe I'd love it!) When I bake I use Splenda in place of sugar. It tastes the same and takes the guilt out of it. We have it with sugar free ice cream. You can get decent bread at most bakeries or try Country Kitchen brand or bake your own. We get Hoffman's sliced cheddar for sandwiches and we get Vermont Cheddar cheese for snacking and Mac n cheese. Mince is always flavourless. we use Oxocubes in it for shepard's pie and I mix it with garlic,Progresso crumbs and parmesan and spices for meatballs. I suppose what you think of the food is going to vary by what part of the country you live. The only decent meals we ever had in the Uk were a couple in a restaurant in Pitlochry in Scotland and a few in the Audley pub in London. I think the only thing I really ever thought was good over there was the roast beef and yorkshire pudding! That is the one thing i cannot master! I have made a batch of truly awful that were the consistency of a muffin and another batch of little hockey pucks!

Beef is fatty and gross. Even the "lean" version has more fat than I'm used to. We rarely eat out and if we do it's Outback on special occasions. We sometimes do subway and my husband like's McChickens. I tried Steak and Shake but their meat is just too fatty.. it's the same with Macca's here... WAY fattier than home and all that fat irritates my stomach.

I can't eat spicy food so mexican stuff is off the menu. I love and miss Indian food. I found a restaurant here but their Butter Chicken was too spicy and they used a feta like cheese in their cheese naan. I eat multigrain bread because it tastes better than white bread here.

I don't think we have "99" here or the cheesecake factory. I checked online and it's only in Des Moines (I live near the QC).. and the 99c Store is only in 4 states. We have dollar stores (dollar general, dollar tree, and family dollar) but I would NEVER buy meat from there unless I wanted to risk dying.

The food just wasn't good. I say "wasn't" because I'm getting better at being able to try more stuff. In the beginning it was real scary for me. White water passed off as milk. Cheese I had to check to see if it was made with "oil". Stuff with high fructose corn syrup... might not be bad for you but I can taste the difference. Cherry flavouring, chocolate that was just horrendous (even normal M&M's are weird so I only buy peanut), peanut butter in LOTS of food, candy bars labelled the same as ours but tasting so wrong, margarine tasted weird, no "normal" sausages, dinner roles tastes like I just ate a loaf that was "off" (nope just the normal flavour)... It was getting to the point I was wasting money on stuff that would have been fine back home but was so wrong and bad that I was getting gun-shy about trying new things. I would find something I like and eat it for ages until I had enough guts to try something else new. Or I'd eat at friends house where I can "try" stuff without wasting food ('cause they'll eat it) and if I like it I have something new, if I don't I'll eat what I DO like when I go home.

Like I said, it's better now 'cause I know what warning signs to look out for, I've learnt to take a small bite of something so it's not offensive if I don't like it. We don't make a lot of stuff with fresh fruit and vegies, like the bit elaborate meals... we will eventually but in the beginning (and still now) it was helping my stomach adjust to the food that was the issue.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

LOL so true!! I have never had moldy bread here it last for ages, its awful!!!! Mince beef wow I drain away so much fat from it!!!!!! Milk to me tastes funny aswel, again last for ever, makes you wonder what they add to it.

I know what you mean about *having* to eat food sometimes like when you go out with friends.

Don't get me wrong some places are really nice but on the whole I'm inclined to dislike them.

Thank goodness someone else does it. I cook the meat then I drain it, then I rinse it with hot water, then drain, then rinse and drain it again. It was horrifying how much fat comes of it... My husband said I was "draining" off the good flavour. The meat is flavourless whether I do it or not, it's just BETTER for you with it gone lol. He never noticed a difference in taste, he just saw me doing it. He's gained weight since I've been here but it's because he would normally just exist on ramen noodles and box mac & cheese. His weight has stabilised, he just is bigger than he used to be.

[K&E2009 71]

Also, how Hersheys passes as chocolate is beyond me!

[Travis and Meghan 24]

I'm kind of glad that i'm not the only one with food issues here, lol. And now you mention it Vanessa, you're right, there is a huge lack of good Indian food here. I used to eat butter chicken all the time in OZ, sometimes a few meals a week because it was so easy and quick to make, lol.

[scotinmass 588]

Also, how Hersheys passes as chocolate is beyond me!

I agree. They have stuff packaged as Cadbury's here but it's made by Hershey's and it's not even close.

[F & J 21]

Maybe it's because I'm from the Philippines and I'm used to dishes with different sauces (very flavorful!) but I find food here in the U.S. to be very bland and VERY unhealthy (not just fast food but even fine dining). The portions are waaay too big - no wonder obesity is such a big problem here.

I miss Filipino food so much... At least I can get good rice here, I'm happy about that

[scotinmass 588]

I'm kind of glad that i'm not the only one with food issues here, lol. And now you mention it Vanessa, you're right, there is a huge lack of good Indian food here. I used to eat butter chicken all the time in OZ, sometimes a few meals a week because it was so easy and quick to make, lol.

We have good Indian restaurants in our area too. In fact just about every nationality. Maybe I should amend my comment to say the food in the North East isw too good. It seems it's ####### everywhere else!

[david'sgirl 134]

Beef is fatty and gross. Even the "lean" version has more fat than I'm used to. We rarely eat out and if we do it's Outback on special occasions. We sometimes do subway and my husband like's McChickens. I tried Steak and Shake but their meat is just too fatty.. it's the same with Macca's here... WAY fattier than home and all that fat irritates my stomach.

I can't eat spicy food so mexican stuff is off the menu. I love and miss Indian food. I found a restaurant here but their Butter Chicken was too spicy and they used a feta like cheese in their cheese naan. I eat multigrain bread because it tastes better than white bread here.

I don't think we have "99" here or the cheesecake factory. I checked online and it's only in Des Moines (I live near the QC).. and the 99c Store is only in 4 states.

Ok. Now I understand. You are comparing some of the nastiest,cheap,grubby chains with actual decent meals either made at home or in a nice restaurant. I would not consider any of the places you mentioned to be decent food. The Outback claims to be an Australian Steak house but they cannot even properly prepare meat and they salt everything to death. Our meal was so bad there that the manager gave us a voucher to come back which we will never use. Steak n Shake oh heck no that is not real food! My son worked at Subway so I know thier standards and um no thanks. There are Indian restaurants here. We have several in fact and we found sauces in the shop to make in a pinch. Seeds of Change makes a wicked good Korma and a Jalfeezi sauce. Some Mexican places near us are carp but there are some really good ones. there are non spicy options. I got a chicken in mole sauce (it has chocolate in it but you would never know). You just have to try new things and be a bit adventurous to find yummy new things. we live in a diverse area and can get pretty much anything except for African food which is too bad cos we had some in Florida and really liked it. A new Nepalese restaurant just opened near us but we have not tried it yet. They plan to include dishes from Morocco,Nepal and Greece.

We try like heck to avoid those fast food places you mentioned and definitely wont go to McDonalds except to use the toilets after reading the article about what the Mcrib, mc nuggets and burgers are really made from!

The 99 is a restaurant. It's a casual dining place like a pub. It's ok for when I don't feel like cooking and they have some healthy options. it is only in the new england states so far so that will be why you never heard of it.

http://the99.know-where.com/the99

http://www.northendboston.com/dine

[david'sgirl 134]

Maybe it's because I'm from the Philippines and I'm used to dishes with different sauces (very flavorful!) but I find food here in the U.S. to be very bland and VERY unhealthy (not just fast food but even fine dining). The portions are waaay too big - no wonder obesity is such a big problem here.

I miss Filipino food so much... At least I can get good rice here, I'm happy about that

I do think portions are too big. we always take home leftovers and usually make 1-2 more meals from it. A lot of places give each person what I would put out for the entire family. You dont have to eat it all in one go though.

I think obesity has a lot to do with lack of exercise not just diet. For example I should be out for a walk or something but here I am on VJ. ;P

[David And Katie 5]

It's so easy to be lazy waiting for your EAD/GC to come through. In the summer I was exercising quite regularly about 2 hours a day on the bike but now the colder weather is here I don't have the drive to get out and do it. Plus the wife leaves for work at 2pm and she whines if I go out before her and by the time she's gone to work it's starting to go dark and cold.

So then I stay in, eat #######, drink ####### and get bigger

I am looking for a non-office based job so hopefully I will a: be too tired to sit at home and be bored and eat (I'll be sleeping) and b: it will help me burn off calories.

Food here is pretty awful - everything has to have salt in it or it's bland... everything is fried or even double fried. Living in the midwest sucks sometimes.

[david'sgirl 134]

It's so easy to be lazy waiting for your EAD/GC to come through. In the summer I was exercising quite regularly about 2 hours a day on the bike but now the colder weather is here I don't have the drive to get out and do it. Plus the wife leaves for work at 2pm and she whines if I go out before her and by the time she's gone to work it's starting to go dark and cold.

So then I stay in, eat #######, drink ####### and get bigger

I am looking for a non-office based job so hopefully I will a: be too tired to sit at home and be bored and eat (I'll be sleeping) and b: it will help me burn off calories.

Food here is pretty awful - everything has to have salt in it or it's bland... everything is fried or even double fried. Living in the midwest sucks sometimes.

I hear ya. we got a treadmill and I just need to stick to a schedule and use it.

My dad was from North Dakota and my grandmother was certainly not known for her culinary skills. I have a friend in MN and she was telling me about the fried foods at the fair last year. They even fried butter! Talk about unhealthy and gross.

[Travis and Meghan 24]

It's so easy to be lazy waiting for your EAD/GC to come through. In the summer I was exercising quite regularly about 2 hours a day on the bike but now the colder weather is here I don't have the drive to get out and do it. Plus the wife leaves for work at 2pm and she whines if I go out before her and by the time she's gone to work it's starting to go dark and cold.

So then I stay in, eat #######, drink ####### and get bigger

I am looking for a non-office based job so hopefully I will a: be too tired to sit at home and be bored and eat (I'll be sleeping) and b: it will help me burn off calories.

Food here is pretty awful - everything has to have salt in it or it's bland... everything is fried or even double fried. Living in the midwest sucks sometimes.

Haha, i have the opposite, i LOVE exercising when it's cold but hate exercising when it's nice and sunny outside.....and it's alwaysss sunny in Arizona :/ even in winter so i haven't been exercising either. I've been watching huge amounts of Netflix and knitting and eating Snickers

[scotinmass 588]

Haha, i have the opposite, i LOVE exercising when it's cold but hate exercising when it's nice and sunny outside.....and it's alwaysss sunny in Arizona :/ even in winter so i haven't been exercising either. I've been watching huge amounts of Netflix and knitting and eating Snickers

Snickers is the only chocolate bar that tastes the same!